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S69-S2 The spatial dimension of productivity (OECD Spatial Productivity Lab Special Session)

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Special Session
Wednesday, August 28, 2019
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
IUT_Room 101

Details

Convenor(s): Alexander Lembcke, Alessandra Proto, Rudiger Ahrend, Alexandra Tsvetkova / Chair: Alexandra Tsvetkova


Speaker

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Dr. Maksim Belitski
Associate Professor
University Of Reading

Firm Productivity and Innovation: From a Micro to a Macro Entrepreneurship Ecosystems

Author(s) - Presenters are indicated with (p)

Maksim Belitski (p), David Audretsch

Discussant for this paper

Maria Abreu

Abstract

This study demonstrates the importance and limits to external knowledge collaboration for innovation across regional, macro and global entrepreneurship ecosystems and for the most innovative UK firms with different levels of productivity. This issue has traditionally presented a challenge for the regional studies on innovation, entrepreneurship and open innovation in terms of both identifying the phenomenon and in measuring it. We develop a structural model that estimates the innovation production function with knowledge inputs and outputs combining both firm characteristics and contextual influences (knowledge spillovers, knowledge collaboration). Our sample includes 29,805 observations and 17,859 firms mainly from the UK Innovation survey and Business registry. We demonstrate that knowledge spillovers as well as knowledge collaboration may bestow a significant advantage for innovation, but there are diminishing returns to collaboration related to firm’s productivity and the entrepreneurship ecosystem where a partner is located. Least productive firms are more likely to exploit regional entrepreneurial ecosystems collaborations, while most productive firms go global. Our findings call for further research on innovation and revision of national and regional innovation policies.

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Prof. Maria Abreu
Full Professor
University of Cambridge

Salaries or culture? Short and medium-term drivers of graduate migration flows in the UK

Author(s) - Presenters are indicated with (p)

Maria Abreu (p)

Discussant for this paper

Andrea Fracasso

Abstract

A small but growing literature has analysed the drivers of internal graduate migration flows in high-income economies, but several unresolved questions remain. A key issue is the extent to which new graduates are driven by the economic circumstances of their origin and potential destination locations, as opposed to the social, aesthetic, natural, and cultural amenities of these locations. This paper addresses this gap in the literature using new comprehensive longitudinal data for the UK, and a semi-parametric Coarsened Exact Matching (CEM) estimation approach, to analyse the extent to which graduates are driven by salaries, living expenses, and natural and cultural amenities. This approach controls for self-selection into higher education institutions and subject choice, as well as parental background and other variables that constrain the choice of post-graduation location. The paper concludes by analysing the potential impact of these flows on the spatial disparities in skills and productivity in the UK, and the resulting policy implications.
Prof. Andrea Fracasso
Full Professor
Università di Trento - Dipartimento di Economia

Globalization, productivity and electoral outcomes: Evidence from Italy

Author(s) - Presenters are indicated with (p)

Andrea Fracasso (p), Mauro Caselli , Silvio Traverso

Discussant for this paper

Maksim Belitski

Abstract

We study whether and to what extent the electoral dynamics in Italy over the 1994-
2008 period can be explained by the development of economic factors associated
with globalization. To measure the level of exposure to globalization for local labor markets, our main unit of analysis, we use the intensity of import competition from China and the presence of immigrants. Looking at parties’ political positions and
employing an estimation strategy that accounts for endogeneity and time-invariant

unobserved effects across local labor markets, we find that both immigration intensity and exposure to import competition from China have contributed positively to the electoral outcomes of far-right parties, whereas only immigration intensity has increased the vote shares of right-wing and traditionalist/ authoritarian/nationalist parties. Some evidence, albeit not robust, shows that immigration may have also had a positive impact on far-left parties, thus possibly further contributing toward political polarization. Moreover, electoral turnout has responded negatively to an increased presence of migrants. While the above effects seem to work through the mediation of labor markets, our results, especially those related to immigration, suggest that other mechanisms at the level of local communities are also at play.

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